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Focus's Open Letter to P-Noy |
Not just about Hacienda Luisita; fate of future farmer-beneficiaries at stake
A Supreme Court (SC) ruling against land distribution and in favor of the SDO and the so-called compromise deal offered by the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) will have far reaching impact not only on the farmworkers in the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda but also on other future farmer beneficiaries. This fight is not only about Hacienda Luisita.
The bigger issue at stake is the fate of the whole agrarian reform program. The SC decision will influence how the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) will fare in the next four years. In the SC decision will also rest the fate of the millions of potential agrarian reform beneficiaries awaiting agrarian reform implementation.
This is why it is crucial for President Noynoy Aquino to now take a stand and push for the distribution of Hacienda Luisita. To distribute the lands to which the farmworkers are entitled is to merely follow the law. The failure of the HLI to implement the Stock Distribution Option agreement, which was also a result of a referendum in 1989, has deprived the agrarian reform beneficiaries of the hacienda the purported benefits under the arrangement. This is the reason why the farmworkers wanted the SDO scheme revoked. Once revoked, the lands that were placed under the SDO should immediately be distributed, something that should have happened years ago if the HLI had not asked the Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order on the implementation the DAR order to revoke the scheme adopted by HLI.
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She Belongs to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa |
By Walden Bello*
(Excerpt from Privilege Speech at the House of Representatives, Aug 2, 2010)
Corruption was the signature of the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
This is why this representation shares the public disgust with the record of orgiastic compensation, brazen manipulation of government agencies and funds for political purposes, and massive waste of the people’s money detailed by President Benigno Aquino III during his State of the Nation address on Monday, July 26.
The public is still reeling from the presidential revelations about the rotting of millions of sacks of imported rice in the warehouses of the National Food Authority, the way that the Napocor was commanded to sell electricity at a low price for electoral gain, and the amazing privileges the board and top executives of the MWSS gave |
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What’s at Stake in the President’s Anti-Corruption Crusade? |
by Herbert Docena*
No other President in recent memory has played the anti-corruption card as successfully as President Noynoy Aquino; his first SONA indicates that he will continue to do so during his presidency. This card—what we can call the “corruption discourse”—has been nicely captured in his slogan, “Kung Walang Korup, Walang Mahirap.” Its message is seductively simple without being necessarily deceptive: Round up all the corrupt officials and the problem of poverty will be solved. In the hands of a President who is perceived to be the “cleanest” of all presidents since Marcos, and whose immediate successor is seen as the most corrupt since Marcos, this discourse may yet become even more potent and resonant.
But why, in fact, is this discourse so powerful? And why is the President so keen on it?
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